A Wide Receiver to Target in Each Round of Your Fantasy Football Draft

Round 6: Emmanuel Sanders, Denver Broncos

ADP: 72nd overall (6.10)

Emmanuel Sanders is a great value right now. Our projections rank him as WR24, just right on Decker's (WR22) heels, but he's being taken as WR31 -- nearly two rounds after Decker.

Sanders' price is falling, too. He was the third pick of the sixth round on July 18th, and he's slipped to the back end of the sixth in roughly a month.

The elephant in the room here is the Denver Broncos' quarterback situation. Mark Sanchez was brought in this offseason to, ostensibly, take over under center after Brock Osweiler bolted in free agency. Well, Sanch-ise hasn't exactly run away with the starting job, and Trevor Siemian -- who hasn't attempted a pass in the NFL -- is set to start in Week 2 of the preseason.

That seems like a disastrous situation for Sanders and Demaryius Thomas, and it's crushing Sanders' ADP.

Here's the thing: Sanders and Thomas had a nightmare situation at quarterback last year, and both players -- Sanders was WR18 while Thomas was WR13 -- still put up very productive seasons.

Among the 46 passers with 100 drop backs last year, Peyton Manning was 36th in Passing NEP per drop back while Osweiler finished 26th. Sanchez got exactly 100 drop backs last year and ranked 41st in this metric, so he was worse, but it's not like Denver's 2015 passing game was anything like the Broncos' 2014 aerial assault.

With an ADP of WR31, the concern over Denver's quarterback situation isn't just baked into Sanders' cost, it's gone too far. Denver has no real pass-game weapons other than Sanders and Thomas, so the volume should be there. As an added bonus, Sanders drastically outplayed Thomas a year ago, per our metrics.

When Sanders' ADP was up in the fifth round in March, no one could really fault you for selecting higher-upside options like Donte Moncrief or Michael Floyd. But at this cost -- nearly a seventh-round pick -- you darn near have to take him.